Silk's Apprentice
by Fire-Shark
Summary: Silk is training his apprentice when an unexpected turn in her education takes place. DON'T READ IF YOU'RE NOT FINISHED WITH THE MALLOREON!
1. A Messy Death

First of all, if you have not finished reading The Malloreon, **DO NOT CONTINUE!! DON'T READ THIS STORY, DON'T EVEN FINISH READING THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! **If you have finished and know about...ah...Silk's unexpected announcement...please continue. The idea for this came about because I was wondering what the nickname of Silk's and Velvet's children would be. Since both silk and velvet are a type of cloth, I figured their children's nicknames would be too. Hence, the existence of Satin. I do not own any of the characters, ideas, or settings in the Belagariad or Malloreon.

* * *

Silk was teaching his daughter, Satin, who had already achieved a nickname from her great uncle, Javelin, the fine art of killing by knife.

"No, no," he said to the overeager six-year old. "You're holding it all wrong. If you stab someone with the knife at that angle, it will terribly messy, and will be that much more work to clean up."

"If we're killing someone, why do we have to clean up?" She asked, puzzled.

"Always get rid of the evidence." Silk answered importantly. Before he could continue, however, his wife walked into the room.

"Are you teaching our daughter your foul trade again, Kheldar?" The Margravine Liselle asked him teasingly.

"Of course not, dear," he answered mildly. "Would I do that?"

She laughed, and embraced him fondly. "Your brother has a job for us." She told him.

"Oh?" He said, feigning disinterest. His nose, however, began to twitch slightly at the mention of a "job."

"Yes," Velvet replied. "He wants someone…shall we say, eliminated."

"Does he now? And what is he willing to charge for this service?"

Velvet chuckled. "Why don't you take that up with him?" She suggested.

"I believe I will, my dear, I believe I will."

-----

"You would charge your own brother when he's doing a favor hiring you?" Urgit, King of the Murgos, asked incredulously. "There are many other assassins here in the palace, and I could get any one of them to do it for me. Yet, thinking you would be offended if I didn't, I called you instead of hiring someone closer to home."

"Don't you know me well enough by now to now that I _always_ charge for my services?" Silk asked his brother, genuinely curious. "Besides, business is business. Now, who did you want me to kill?"

"Must you say that?" Asked Urgit in a pained voice. "It sounds so…crude."

"Why say anything else, when that's exactly what we're doing? Now then, is he some foreign official, or maybe just an overly annoying Murgo? Or maybe more than one? I find Murgos troublesome, and if you want me too, I will gladly depopulate all of Murgodom."

"And leave me to rule over the bugs? I think not. At any rate, the gentleman in question is a very shady official supposedly from the Thulls. However, he is most definitely not a Thull himself, and his propositions are far too intelligent to have come from the Thulls. I suspect he may be Dagashi."

Satin, who had been listening with interest before now, found the details of this Dagashi's incipient demise rather tedious, and soon became bored. After a while she heard loud voices from the hall, and decided to investigate. She opened the door a crack to see who it was that was causing such a commotion as to be heard through the thick, gilted doors.

Whatever she had expected, it was not this. The Dagashi that her uncle had so recently described was standing before the door, commanding to see the king.

"The King is attending to other business right now. The Thullish ambassador will have to wait." The doorman said coldly. No one noticed as Satin snuck quietly into the hall.

"I will see the king!" The Dagashi blustered. "If you do not let me through this very instant, I'll—."

"You'll what? Run home crying to your master? Your master is hardly more than a dog, and his fear of the King will keep him from responding to your petty complaints." The doorman responded, returning to his post. "Now, will you return to your quarters, or must you be assisted?"

Satin, hidden from sight by a large tapestry hanging on the wall, saw the Dagashi draw his knife. The doorman, who hadn't seen the weapon, was his obvious target, and then anyone who was on the other side of the door. Alarmed, Satin felt through her clothes for something to use as a weapon, or at least to warn the guard. All she found, however, was the knife her father had been teaching her with. Clutching it tightly, she stepped from behind the tapestry.

"Stop." She said in a small voice. The Dagashi whirled around to face her, and the guard started in surprise. Then, seeing the knife in her hand, the Dagashi panicked, and ran towards her, intending to vanish down the hallway and escape the palace grounds before he was arrested. Instead he found Satin's knife. He gaped at it in shock as the slim blade slipped through his chest, and spluttered in protest. Then he toppled over, dead. Satin reached down and pulled her knife free of the man. Then the door opened, and she heard running footsteps.

"What the—." She heard her uncle's shocked voice. Then her father spoke.

"You still had the wrong angle." He said critically, looking at the pool of blood spreading from the man's chest out across the floor. "What did you do with the knife?"

She showed the still bloody blade to him. He nodded in approval.

"Good. Now, you must be very careful not to put a dirty blade back in its sheath. I usually carry around a few handkerchiefs to clean them off with. Wipe the blade, like so…" As Satin received an impromptu lesson in how to clean a knife, she had no idea that her education as a spy, thief, and assassin was off to a very strange, and very exciting, start.


	2. A Discussion of Pay

A/N: I had originally intended this story to be a oneshot, but I got a couple of great ideas for a second chapter, so I guess I'm going to continue it. XD I utilized one of th ideas in this chapter, and I'll probably use the other one in the next chapter. Also, some perceptive reader pointed out on the last chapter that a Dagashi wouldn't panic at the sight of a 6 year old with a knife, which I hadn't thought of. So, I decided to make it into somewhat of a plot twist. I don't own any of the characters except Satin or any settings and all of that good stuff. Enjoy!

...

The worst part about it was that Urgit kept looking at her as if she held a snake. It wasn't like she was a different person or anything. She had just killed someone who was probably an assassin meant to bring down the Murgo king. Her father was completely unfazed, and Satin thought her uncle should follow his example.

"Urgit, stop looking at her like that," Silk said to his half-brother in disgust.

"But she killed him!" Urgit protested, still looking at Satin with slightly wild eyes.

"So? You've dealt with people who have killed before. You've even killed a few yourself," Silk said reasonably.

"But she's six!"

"What's that got to do with anything? How old were you when you killed your brothers?"

"That's different. If I hadn't killed them and gotten the throne, they would have killed me."

"Urgit, the reasoning doesn't matter. Now would you please just pay attention to our negotiations? With the way things are going, I'm going to get an inordinate amount of money from you and the negotiations won't even be fun." Silk said, passing his hand in front of his face wearily.

It was late at night, and they were gathered once again in Urgit's throne room. The body of the Thullish ambassador had been examined and disposed of, and now Silk and Urgit were discussing the fee for the kill, as well as speculating on the Dagashi's purpose.

"I don't suppose you could see your way through to putting the kill on Satin's training, and have no bill?" Urgit asked his brother cautiously. Satin noticed idly that his nose was beginning to twitch.

"Ah, I don't think so, brother dear. It's a little early on in her lessons to actually start practicing on people, so I think you'll have to pay up." Silk said.

"Shouldn't I get some percentage of the fee?" Satin asked suddenly. "I mean, it was _me_ who actually killed him, after all."

"And how much were you thinking, dear?" Silk asked her mildly.

She thought about it. "No less than seventy five percent."

"Seventy five percent?" Silk asked incredulously. "How am I supposed to make a profit off of twenty five percent?"

"Hold on a minute, brother. She may have a point." Urgit said, his eyes gone sly. He looked at his niece. "Perhaps we can do a trade of some sort? You could say that you killed the Dagashi for my birthday or something. And there would be no fee involved?"

Silk stared at him. "That's absolutely ridiculous. Look, we won't accept anything less than 50 gold crowns."

"50? That's highway robbery! I won't spare any more than 5."

"40." Satin interjected yet again. "Then I'll get 30, and father will get 10."

Silk's nose began to twitch. "I brought you here, after all. And I provided the knife. I think _I _should be the one to get seventy five percent, and you can get the twenty five."

"Absolutely out of the question." Satin wondered whether her nose twitched like theirs did. She rather hoped not.

"I won't go any higher than 8." Urgit declared, bringing their attention back to him.

"No less than 45." Silk countered, eyes glinting.

"Alright, a fee of 30 for this kill, and then a fifteen percent discount on all kills I do for you in the future," Satin said to her uncle.

He considered. "Done!" He shouted, and spat in his hand. She also spat, and they shook hands, sealing the bargain. Silk looked at them suspiciously, and Urgit got up to get the money.

"I still say you should get no more than forty percent." He told his daughter.

She shook her head. "I want seventy percent at least."

"forty five percent?"

She remained unmoving.

"Fifty, then? We can each get 15."

"Sixty five."

"You drive a hard bargain, Satin."

"I had a good teacher, father," she said sweetly.

He sighed mournfully. "How does sixty percent sound?"

She spat in her hand again. "Perfect."

They sealed the deal, and Urgit gave Satin 18 pieces of the red Murgo gold, and gave his brother 12."

"Well, now that that's settled, what do you make of the Dagashi's presence here?" He said, leaning back contentedly.

"Are you sure he was Dagashi?" Silk asked him carefully. Urgit blinked.

"What else would he be?"

"I'm not sure, but a Dagashi probably wouldn't have forced the issue with the doorman that way. And of course, he wouldn't have been taken out by a six year old."

"That's true, isn't it?" Urgit mused, looking up at the gilded ceiling. "Dagashi don't panic easily."

"No, they don't. He looked like one, though." Silk said.

"How can he have looked like one? Dagashi look like all sorts of races." Urgit said, puzzled.

"That's exactly how. He wasn't a Murgo, or a Malloreon, or a Nadrak or Thull, and he wasn't obviously any of the western races. He had slightly angled eyes, which suggests Murgo, but he also had western attributes as well." Silk looked directly at Urgit then. "Who all have you offended recently?"

"Enough to want to kill me? A fair number of people, I'd imagine. But do we know for sure he wanted to kill me?" Urgit asked.

"That's what most people who disguise themselves and sneak into the royal compound want to do." Silk responded, tugging at his nose thoughtfully.

Just then Satin yawned hugely. She blinked at the two with sleepy eyes.

"I suppose it is a bit late. We can speculate more on this tomorrow," Urgit said, stifling a yawn of his own.

"Truly," Silk agreed, and he and his daughter said goodnight to the monarch.

"It was an eventful day for you," Silk remarked as they walked down the hallway to their quarters. Satin just nodded silently. "I'm proud of you, though," he added after a while. She looked up at him and smiled. "Maybe if you grow skilled with the knife soon, we can move on to poison." Her eyes brightened at that comment.

"But I thought you didn't like poison?" She asked him.

He shrugged. "I'm not against you learning anything that might be useful later on in life," he said. "Anyway, goodnight."

As Satin lay in bed, waiting for sleep to overtake her, she smiled and thought happy thoughts about becoming Hunter, and being a renowned assassin and thief. Her dreams were of becoming more notorious than even her father, and she slept soundly with her thoughts to keep her company.

Well, there it is! Just on a random note here, Silk is really hard to write as a father. XD If anyone has any more suggestions for upcoming chapters or advice on how I can improve, it would be very welcome! Hope you liked it!


	3. A Meeting

I don't recall posting this chapter, so I ended up writing more on the end of it. So, I'm updating it, because what I wrote would not have made much sense in a new chapter. Hopefully I'll get another one up soon, but I'm sort of stuck still. xD Characters, places, and concepts copyright to David and Leigh Eddings, aside from Satin.

...*...

Velvet looked critically at her husband as he told her the news of Satin's first kill.

"You must be getting old, Kheldar." She told him. "You've been had with the negotiations, I'm afraid."

He shrugged, tossing his pack into a chair negligently. "She's my daughter; I guess I shouldn't be too hard on her."

"How will she learn to beat difficult bargainers if her father, the famous Prince Kheldar, doesn't teach her?" She teased. Then she became serious. "So you're not sure if the Dagashi was really a Dagashi?"

He shook his head. "We couldn't reach any definitive conclusions."

She pursed her lips. "I wonder if this is anything serious," she mused.

"You worry too much, dear." He told her.

"In our profession, if we don't worry, we're dead." She responded.

-----

Some time after the incident in Urgit's palace, Satin and her father were in Boktor to give a report of the incident to Javelin. Her father was going to ask Javelin to send more agents into the east, to size up the situation. While he was doing that, however, she was stuck taking etiquette lessons from Porenn, the aging Queen of Drasnia. She sighed. What use did a thief and spy have for courtly etiquette? Porenn seemed to read her thoughts.

"I know you don't like it Satin, but you are a member of the royal family, and you need to know how to act." She said to her reluctant pupil. "Think of it as a business venture. You're father wouldn't be half the merchant, spy, or thief that he is if he didn't know the ways of the court and the basics of running a country. He has smoothly manipulated many situations that he wouldn't have been able to get out of if he didn't have a prince's education."

"Oh, alright." Satin replied after a moment. Porenn concealed a smile. She was very good at giving pep talks and bringing people around to see her side of things.

"Good. Now then, sit up straight like a lady of note, and pay attention."

Satin did as she was told, listening intently.

-----

That same day, Satin was strolling around the palace compound, idly following her father as he talked to Prince Kheva. She was not following the conversation at all, and was instead staring around her at the numerous people doing their work. She wondered how many of them were spies, and decided to see if she could tell who was and wasn't. She began to watch the comings and goings more carefully.

At first, she had trouble picking out spies from regular people. However, it soon became easier, and she was fairly certain she was right with most of her assumptions because almost everyone in Boktor was a spy anyway. After a while, she began to see patterns in the behavior of the different spies. She could tell which ones were thieves, which ones specialized in assassination, and which were just information gatherers. In fact, it became fun.

Her father and the King of Drasnia had stopped to greet some acquaintance of theirs when a strange, new person caught Satin's eye. He was a tall, dark skinned man, and his eyes bore traces of Angarak heritage, though he looked like a normal Alorn in all other cases. After watching him for a moment, Satin decided he was just a Sendarian and was probably not important.

She was just turning away, however, when she noticed his fingers twitch slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he beckoned to small, chubby man dressed in a fur coat. The fur coat in itself was strange, as it was summer here in Boktor and no one should have need of furs but the Bear Cult. The man was obviously not a Cultist himself, however, as the Bear Cult was not known for wearing actual tailored coats, just random furs strung over their bodies. The Cult was also discouraged in Drasnia, and especially so close to the palace. As the fur-clad man walked over to the other man, greeting him warmly, Satin frowned. There was something wrong about their meeting, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She watched as the two men held a brief conversation before parting ways. The man wearing the fur coat sauntered away from his companion with an easy-going gait, and Satin soon lost sight of him as he disappeared into the crowd. The other man watched the one in fur leave, before he too strode off in another direction. Satin watched him until he left the immediate vicinity, still trying to figure out her strange sense of suspicion.

"Satin?" Her father called, startling her. She turned to find him watching her with a raised eyebrow. Prince Kheva was already out of sight. "Are you coming?"

She nodded, suddenly embarrassed that she hadn't noticed the departure of her two companions, and hurried to catch up, the strange encounter momentarily forgotten.


End file.
